The Mid-Autumn, Mooncake or Lantern Festival always carries special meaning for me. It is one of those occasions where you just simply have to be out at night to soak in the sights, sounds, scents and sweetness (mooncakes!) of that savoury festival where we commemorate the harvest of autumn. In Singapore, the celebrations inevitably revolve around the Singapore River, and that was where our extended family decided to venture after an awesome dinner (and fine wine to boot).

The moon was bright and round that night. Apparently, it was even rounder and bigger the next day (ba yue shi liu).

As Ethan celebrates his fourth birthday this coming Tuesday (27 November), we had a great week of multiple celebrations. This actually felt uncannily like his third birthday, if you can recall, with pretty much the same players (close friends and relatives). Looking at the photos just makes you wish you were a kid all over again doesn’t it?

First was a celebration with his good friend Dyann, who turned five on 19 November at her place.

We celebrated two birthdays by two dear nieces this month. As usual, it was a mixture of family fun and chaos when you have multiple kids in a restaurant. There were some uncanny similarities between the two celebrations, which I thought I should highlight.

1) Both the girls’ names start with A – Ariel & Alycia.

2) Both birthdays occur in April. Ariel’s birthday is on 10th April while Alycia’s birthday is on 22nd April.Read More

As some of you would know, my 3.25 year old son Ethan simply LOVES lion dance performances. He will go into a frenzy, eyes glazed and jaw agape, when he hears the heart pounding bellows of the Chinese drums coupled with the clashing cymbals. Long time readers would probably have seen him doing his own lion dancing performance before.

This CNY, Ethan was really lucky. He managed to catch not just two lion dancing but an exciting dragon dance at his great grandmother’s place at McNair Road. How did it go? Well first, a few words of greetings from our sponsor.

My family and I went for a short break recently in Bangkok during the New Year’s Eve and New Year period. Probably one of the few holidays that we will remember for a long time but not for the reasons you imagine.

Everybody who has been following the news will know that this was the exact same period of time when nine bombs went off recently hours before the countdown in Bangkok. This led to an outcry amongst the politicians, especially ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who violently objected to being linked to this. There is now a big debate going on about who was responsible for this spate of violence, with at least many believing that it was not the work of the Southern Muslim insurgents whom Thaksin tried hard to quell.

While we were there on NYE, we heard from the locals that the countdown party at Central World Plaza just a stone’s throw away from our service apartment at Centrepoint Langsuan was cancelled. The reason? Nine bombings calculated to sour the mood for New Year celebrations in one of Southeast Asia’s most happening party city.

Hotel front office staff, taxi drivers, restaurant owners and the like were chatting about it like it was just part and parcel of their everyday lives. According to one cab driver, “this is just part of life in Bangkok. No problem.” No wonder, considering how many hoaxes and bombings take place here regularly.

On that night itself, we were celebrating our first New Year’s Eve away from Singapore at a fancy Italian restaurant along swanky Langsuan Road (just a short walk from our service apartment). Amidst chasing after my son Ethan, having a few sips of wine (and later beer in the apartment room), and enjoying the huge T-bone steak in from of me, we were mostly nonchalant to the acts of terrorism. We even saw the fireworks going off in a few places, at Chao Phraya River and the urban city centre while sipping beer and watching movie reruns. It was only later as we gradually found about the extent of the damage that we sobered up a little.